Daily Archives: January 30, 2012

This is our first attempt at growing one of our favorite veggies…I have read that brussel sprouts flourish when the weather is frosty…today the high was 70 degrees…no frost in sight. I hope we will enjoy the veggies of our labors before the warm temperatures encourage the appearance of aphids or cabbage worms.

When planning your herb garden…remember rosemary. It is incredibly easy to grow as well as heat and drought tolerant. Plant your rosemary in well drained sunny spot in the garden.

Rosemary is a wonderfully aromatic herb with medicinal and culinary qualities.. rosemary has a reputation for improving memory. Placing fresh rosemary sprigs in a jar is a simple way to give your home that aeromatic fresh earthy scent. And maybe it will help you remember why you came into that room in the first place…oh yes, I was looking for my glasses or keys or whatever…

Rosemary is a wonderful compliment to dozens of recipes. It can take ordinary grilled chicken and voila… rosemary chicken Lamb Chops become…honey and rosemary lamb chops. Ordinary refrigerated pizza dough becomes rosemary foccacia bread and everyday mayo is transformed into garlic rosemary mayonnaise. It also makes for a great marinade or salad dressing. Rosemary stems can be used as skewers when grilling veggies. Dried rosemary leaves can be added to other dried herbs to make a quick and simple seasoning.

While doing a little additional research on the herb rosemary I stumbled on a couple of videos that I thought would be a nice addition to an otherwise dry post…

The results of a study suggest carnosic acid, found in rosemary, may shield the brain from free radicals, lowering the risk of strokes and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and is anti-inflammatory.Carnosol is also a promising cancer chemoprevention and anti-cancer agent.A study found that rosemary “produced a significant enhancement of performance for overall quality of memory and secondary memory factors, but also produced an impairment of speed of memory compared to controls.”

In the Middle Ages, rosemary was associated with wedding ceremonies – the bride would wear a rosemary headpiece and the groom and wedding guests would all wear a sprig of rosemary, and from this association with weddings, rosemary evolved into a love charm. Newlywed couples would plant a branch of rosemary on their wedding day. If the branch grew, it was a good omen for the union and family. In ‘A Modern Herbal’, Mrs Grieves says “A rosemary branch, richly gilded and tied with silken ribands of all colours, was also presented to wedding guests, as a symbol of love and loyalty.” If a young person would tap another with a rosemary sprig and if the sprig contained an open flower, it was said that the couple would fall in love.

Rosemary was used as a divinatory herb. Several herbs were grown in pots and assigned the name of a potential lover. They were left to grow and the plant that grew the strongest and fastest gave the answer. Rosemary was stuffed into poppets (cloth dolls) to attract a lover or attract curative vibrations for illness. It was believed that placing a sprig of rosemary under a pillow before sleep would repel nightmares, and if placed outside the home it would repel witches. Somehow, the use of rosemary in the garden to repel witches turned into signification that the woman ruled the household in homes and gardens where rosemary grew abundantly. By the 16th century, men were known to rip up rosemary bushes to show that they, not their wives, ruled the roost.

Sprigs of rosemary are worn on ANZAC Day and sometimes Remembrance Day to signify remembrance; the herb grows wild on the Gallipoli peninsula.